July 09, 2005
nohatnocattle.com
Please see here. The guestbook is open for any NoHatNoCattlers out there who would like to sign it.
Stan's archives will always be up on this site.
Posted by sara at 07:17 PM
June 28, 2005
Nail
At The Squeling Pig in Mission Hill
Boston, MA
Posted by stan at 05:58 PM
June 09, 2005
Cherry Pie
Hello old friend, it's been too long since we last met...
Posted by stan at 08:12 PM
June 08, 2005
About Time
"United Airlines plans to announce today that it is the first domestic airline to receive approval from regulators to install wireless Internet networks on its planes."
Probably not until 2006 though, and I don't usually fly United, so unless one of those planes happens to be flying within 250 feet of my plane I'm probably going to be out of luck. This would have come in handy during the Sox playoff run for those unfortunate few of us that were trapped 30,000 feet up during game 5 of the ALCS.
Here's the whole article.
Posted by stan at 12:39 PM
The Bar Bill Is In...
...just got an impressive number back from the packie we used for the wedding. It seems our guest polished off:
-230 Beers - Sierra Nevada led the pack, followed closely by Anchor Steam and the workingman's delight that is PBR. The biggest hit of the drinking evening, Geary's Summer Ale, was also gone in about 45 minutes and unfortunately the store didn't have any more
-52 Bottles of Wine - Including a startling amount of Chardonnay, who would've thought our guests would be such big white wine drinkers?
-Just 9 Liters of The Hard Stuff - Not that much, but perhaps that's the reason that, in the biggest upset of the night, we didn't have one guest get completely trashed AND make an embarrassing scene. We are still in a bit of disbelief that this didn't happen, but since we didn't exactly have a traditional wedding and reception, I guess it is ok that we skipped that wedding staple as well.
photo via sara.
Posted by stan at 10:28 AM
June 05, 2005
No Hat, No Cattle, No Longer Single
As you may have noticed, No Hat, No Cattle has been dormant for the last week. That's because I was out changing my tax-filing status for the next 50 years or so. It was a good time, I highly recommend it.
And to prove that time does indeed fly, we celebrated our 1 week anniversary yesterday at the scenic O'Hare airport. As you may know, 1 week is the processed meats anniversary, so we chowed down on some his and hers Chicago-style hot dogs.
Call me a romantic, but when my bride wants the neon-green relish, she gets the neon-green relish.
His...
...and Hers
Posted by stan at 03:48 PM
May 12, 2005
May The Force Be With You(r Lawn)
Seeing this illicits two thoughts: 1. Must George Lucas have all the money, and 2. I really wish I had a lawn.
(Via The HardBall Times - oddly enough)
Posted by stan at 11:03 AM
May 08, 2005
Direct Route?
I'm not a pilot to be sure, but couldn't they find a more direct route between Las Vegas & Houston?
Posted by stan at 03:45 PM
May 06, 2005
Carla Must Have Had Something To Do With It
Here's a nice video of Dr. Fraisher Crane falling off a stage.
Posted by stan at 04:24 PM
May 03, 2005
No Hat, No Cattle Returns
No Hat, No Cattle has returned from a brief, and I do mean brief, trip to Boston to iron out some wedding stuff/have a few drinks with friends (it was more of a visit to the inside of a Continental plane than anything else).
The Highlights:
1. I got a very good haircut by a rabidly homophobic woman. She essentially held me hostage with half cut hair as she went on a 20 minute screed about how everyone is moving out of Massachusetts because it is not faith-based enough. I tried to tell her we're moving because boston was not affordable-housing-based enough, but she not surprisingly seemed somewhat set in her ways.
2. Six cups of Dunkin' Donuts coffee in 2 days. Good stuff.
3. 2 full days of delightfully low humidity.
4. I had a mentally exhausting brunch at Fire & Ice* in Cambridge, where I was forced to try and keep track of my pile of omlette fixins as they cooked them on the giant communal grill with about 40 other piles of fixins. It was like 3-card monty except with piles of fixins and lots more of them. 40-fixin monty.
That is about it, it was only 2 days afterall.
*Fire & Ice is a restuarant where they let you pick the ingredients/sauces you want from a bunch of bars and then you give them to the cooks and they cook them for you. Thus my bacon-based omelette Sunday morning.
Posted by stan at 12:17 PM
April 28, 2005
The Apocalypse Approaches?
From today's Boston Globe. What would Cotton Mather think?
Posted by stan at 10:31 AM
April 13, 2005
Making A Difference By Leading The Way
If I could have hooked the old Commodore 64 up to the internet about 20 years ago, you might have seen something like this...
Posted by stan at 12:11 AM
April 11, 2005
Search Terms
So I noticed today that someone got to my site by doing a search for "pet chickens". OK, fair enough, there have been wierder searches that lead people here, but the domain name of the person doing that search? tyson.com. As in Tyson Chicken.
It made me feel kind of good to see that, I guess that means that there is at least one person out there that really, really, really likes what they do for a living. Lucky chicken-lover.
Posted by stan at 05:25 PM
April 08, 2005
Friendly Skies
Posted by stan at 02:18 PM
April 07, 2005
New Orleans
I can think of no more fitting symbol of New Orleans than the garbage can. First, there are more of them per capita in New Orleans than any other city in the world I'm betting, literally one, two, or three of them on every corner; and that isn't counting the huge, full-sized dumpster they leave on Bourbon Street.
Second, and not that it isn't a fun place, but a couple nights on Bourbon Street has to be the most disgusting thing this side of running the Boston Marathon; just a never ending string of foulness and opportunities to contract hepetitis. When people gasp at the sight of someone walking down the street in sandals, well, that isn't a good sign.
The kicker on our trip was walking down Bourbon on Easter Sunday and seeing lines of people waiting for the Easter parade, in their Sunday finest, sitting on the curb with their feet in the gutter. I don't think those people realized what was flowing through that gutter about 9 hours earlier.
Posted by stan at 11:16 AM
April 04, 2005
No Hat, No Cattle, No Blog
After a week and a half or so hiatus, nohatnocattle is back in business.
Posted by stan at 12:24 AM
March 23, 2005
Still More Cranes
More cranes here, here and here, proving once again that nohatnocattle.com is your #1 internet resource for crane pictures! Take that cranes.com!
Posted by stan at 10:48 AM
March 15, 2005
Squirrel Meat?
One eagle-eyed nohatnocattle reader has noticed that at the bottom of the first picture in this post appears what may be an advertisment offering squirrel steaks. I am happy to say that, upon further review of the source, this is indeed only an ad for an almond company.
Posted by stan at 04:36 PM
Chuck Norris, Esq.
In case you were wondering what he has been doing since his last show got cancelled.
Posted by stan at 01:29 PM
Patriotism
From today's NY Times:
Work slowdowns are methods commonly used by labor unions to apply pressure without actually striking. During the Solidarity movement in Poland, people expressed their disapproval of the government-run news media by taking a walk with their hats on backward at exactly 6 p.m. when the state news program started. When the government noticed the trend, it issued curfews, but people then put their televisions in their windows facing outward so that only the police walking the streets would see the broadcasts."You have to remember, in Poland during those years showing up drunk at work was seen as a patriotic act because people hated the bosses so much," Professor Scott said.
Posted by stan at 11:56 AM | Comments (1)
Elk Steaks
I noticed this ad the other day in the back of a magazine:
I confess I've always been a fan of the exotic meats, put a dish of wild boar on a restaurant menu and can't resist and the reindeer jerky was the highlight of my trip to Norway last year. But I didn't realize that Elk is the gold standard of healthy exotic meats. Take a look:
Health Meat Rankings
1. elk ranges from .7 to 1% fat,
2. ostrich 2 to 3% fat,
3. buffalo 2 to 3% fat,
4. chicken breast 2 to 4% fat,
5. salmon 5 to 6% fat,
6. ham 6% fat,
7. roast beef 6 to 10% fat, and
last. back 98 to 104% fat.
I think Elk might be just the thing to take the edge off of the increasingly high percentage of whole-grain products that have been making their way into the house lately.
Delicious!
Posted by stan at 09:35 AM | Comments (1)
March 13, 2005
Southern Living
Took only 2 1/2 months for them to get the name and address, not bad. Plus, I hear they have a really good expose on humidity coming up in the April issue.
Posted by stan at 05:18 PM
March 08, 2005
Searches
My goal in starting this site is nearly complete: I'm the #2 search option on MSN for the query, "Cheap Guns For Minors"!
Posted by stan at 11:17 AM
March 07, 2005
The Return of MacGyver
There has been a lot of banter and concern about my MacGyver problems among nohatnocattlers in the last few days, so I thought I'd let everyone know that it looks like things are going to work out after all. Turns out that the MacGyver DVDs were released recently, so we've popped them into our Netflix queue and I should be watching MacGyver again before the week is out.
The bad news is that rumor in MacGyver circles is that there are no special features on these discs, so we won't be getting any Richard Dean Anderson commentary or anything like that. But the good news is that, "The Heist", the best MacGyver episode ever is on the first disc. This is the one in which Mac has to steal some diamonds back from a casino owner that stole them from a charity (you know, one of those charities that has 75 lbs. of diamonds laying around). They made a movie kind of like this with Brad Pitt and George Clooney 15 years later.
Posted by stan at 12:07 PM
March 04, 2005
Random Website
Conservative Christian Blueberry Farmers
Posted by stan at 09:28 PM
March 01, 2005
Where's MacGyver?
One of the nicest parts of the move to Houston has been that, since our apartment is directly across the street from my office, I usually have time in the morning to get something to eat and enjoy a cup of coffee before running out to work. While this doesn't make up from not being able to oblige my normal ritual of stopping by Dunkin' Donuts on the way to work, it is still nice.
To complement this, I've been able to flip on the TV at 8 and catch the first half hour of a classic episode of MacGyver while sipping coffee. Besides the blast from the past - the taking me back to those simpler times when really tall blond spiky hair and mock collared shirts were acceptable out of a grown man - it provides me with a valuable opportunity to impress my future bride with my MacGyver trivia prowess.
For instance, when she asks what this MacGyver character's first name is, I can quickly tell her that it is Angus and provide her details about the two-episode dream sequence in which Mac goes back in time to the Middle Ages, joins up with the knights of the round table and is able to uncover his first name from a message left by one of his ancestors on a dungeon wall. Or I can regal her with information like that both Brandon Walsh & Blossom of TV's Blossom got there start on MacGyver episodes. Or that Teri Hatcher's protrayal of the recurring character Penny Parker is not at all sexist or simplistic typecasting of a female character, but rather that her simplicity of thought (some call it ditziness) is the perfect vehicle to bring out the inner complexity of this man MacGyver (after all, he eschews guns because his childhood friend was accidently killed while they were playing with a handgun in the woods, and even though an 8 year old Mac transformed his bike into a combination bike/stretcher and was able to get him to the hospital he still died, or that he was set to make the olympic hockey team in his youth but had his chances cut short by injury, this is a man with issues! And that is the paradox of MacGyver, he can handle the most complex problems of other people, but cannot seem to do the same with his own prolems.) Anyway, I feel that these conversations have brought Sara and I closer together, or at the very least they have given Sara an opportunity to hone her snide comment making.
So yesterday I tuned in at 8, just like I always do, and there was some silly NASCAR show on. Same thing this morning. The only conclusion I can draw here is that the formerly fine folks over at Spike TV (TV for men) are not at all interested in helping strengthen the matrimonial bonds of it's audience members. I am beginning to think that the are only interested in ratings!
Posted by stan at 10:31 AM | Comments (5)
February 10, 2005
I...Love...Dunkin' Donuts....Coffee......
Tasty!
Posted by stan at 10:22 PM
February 08, 2005
More Parades?
This is kind of a little sad, it's the first Boston Championship Parade I've missed since the '86 Celtics. I had a good excuse for that one, being on 11 and all. This time it's my own damn fault.
On the bright side, it looks awful cold there.
Posted by stan at 01:16 PM | Comments (1)
February 03, 2005
Pig
Ever get bored at work and just start randomly typing in URLs to see what pops up? Me neither, but if I was going to I'd start with this.
Posted by stan at 07:03 AM
February 01, 2005
Leftover Christmas Dinner Picture #2
Posted by stan at 08:00 AM
Leftover Christmas Dinner Picture # 1
Posted by stan at 07:59 AM
Dunkin' Dog
Even dogs prefer Dunkin' Donuts...
Posted by stan at 07:32 AM | TrackBack
January 25, 2005
Yet More Oslo
The last of the random Oslo pictures, though these two could have been taken in Detroit for all you know. The first two batches are here and here.
Posted by stan at 12:02 PM
January 24, 2005
Why The Steelers Lost
I've heard a lot of reasons why the Pats beat the Steelers yesterday, better defense, better coaching, superior leadership, etc., but for my money the Steelers need only blame this guy:
We're all like devastated," Nick Hoban said after the game. Hoban, who lives on the South Side, said he already had purchased six airline tickets, six Super Bowl tickets and several Jacksonville, Fla., hotel rooms for him, his two sons and three nephews. Total cost: $25,000.
The guy spent $25 grand BEFORE his superbowl chicks had hatched? If a Red Sox fan tried some business like that he'd be drawn and quartered.
Via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Posted by stan at 10:09 AM
January 20, 2005
Busted Chair
Here is one of our dining room chairs after Sara sat on it. I wonder how often this would happen if she wasn't so skinny?
Posted by stan at 09:02 AM
January 19, 2005
Three Important Things
Posted by stan at 10:14 PM
More Old Oslo Pictures
Some more old shots from my trip to Oslo last spring, here is the first batch if you're interested, though this does have a do-you-want-to-see-the-neighbors-slides-from-there-trip-to-the-grand-canyon kind of feel to it. Oh well.
Here's the Parliment building, from what I gather they don't even lock the doors. I was a little worried that I would bump into the PM outside and, ever the ugly American, not know who he was, so I usually stayed away from it.
Right across the street from my hotel, but I didn't have time to do anything except walk by.
The waterfront along Oslo Fjord was very nice, especially due to the unseasonably warm March weather they were having at the time. I guess the whole area use to be a big industrial shipyard, but they eventually turned it into a residental area once ships started getting too big for the berths. The above is one of the many old drydock that they flooded to create private marinas.
The Palace was right across the street from my hotel too, the above is a picture on a morning walk I took. They too have guards with elaborate hats & M-16s, just like the Brits. Must be a monarchy thing.
The place in the distance, taken from further down Karl Johan Gate.
Posted by stan at 11:54 AM
January 17, 2005
Augusto Pinochet or AC Slater?
A fun internet time waster.
Correct guesses so far: Gomer Pyle, Hot Lips Houlihan, AC Slater
Wrong guesses so far: Alex P. Keaton, Pol Pot & Pinochet
Posted by stan at 05:28 PM
Salary Clock
In case you ever wondered how much more money Britney Spears makes than you, here's your answer.
Posted by stan at 04:49 PM
January 16, 2005
The Pope
Posted by stan at 03:40 PM
January 14, 2005
The Modern American Family
Posted by stan at 07:07 PM
January 11, 2005
Fenway Cranes
Posted by stan at 09:29 AM
January 09, 2005
On All Occasions
Posted by stan at 08:38 PM
January 05, 2005
CameraMail
An inside look at the United States Postal Service.
Posted by stan at 02:03 PM
Book
Posted by stan at 08:21 AM
January 03, 2005
Snowy Drive 8 Days Ago
Today's Forecast: 72 Degrees
Posted by stan at 09:59 AM
Numbers
Symphony Hall
Boston, MA
December 2004
Posted by stan at 09:36 AM
December 23, 2004
Festivus Hiatus
No Hat No Cattle is on its Festivus break...next posts will be from Houston.
Posted by stan at 10:31 PM
December 22, 2004
Glimpse Into The Future
Sara likes wiener dogs. I like Great Danes. Here's a glimpse of the future.
Posted by stan at 11:28 AM | Comments (2)
December 21, 2004
Merry...Um...Happy Holidays
21 Dec. 2004
SCOTT McCLELLAN: Thank you. Happy holidays to everybody here.
Q. You can say, Christmas.
via Press Gaggle
Posted by stan at 11:11 PM
December 18, 2004
Keys
Posted by stan at 03:37 PM
December 17, 2004
Pidgeons
I rembember all the talk about this problem a few months ago when the central artery finally started coming down in Boston.
The funny thing is why the idea of building nests was rejected by the local civic organization, because the nests wouldn't fit in with the new trendy image they are trying to create. Shouldn't it have been rejected because, you know, it is a patently ridiculous idea?
Posted by stan at 12:09 PM
December 14, 2004
Garbage Out
After two and a half years in grad school, I can now churn our business-speak with frieghtening efficiency. Behold, the first paragraph of my Social Issues in Managment paper, which took me exactly 43 seconds to write:
At its heart, corporate responsibility is about striving for and maintaining balance among all the stakeholders of a firm. It is about weighing the importance of meeting economic goals against the effect achieving those goals will have on employees, suppliers, customers, communities and the environment. As with any individual, a certain level of imbalance can be sustained. However, a point comes when the imbalance begins to hamper the person’s ability to function effectively. This is no different for an organization than it is for a person; to achieve maximum effectiveness a firm needs maintain a certain focus on balancing stakeholder needs. Should a firm fail to do so for a particular stakeholder, the imbalance will begin to hamper its ability to function profitably.
Another favorite line of nothingness from earlier this year:
Only through a combination of redressing past malevolence and boldly striking out towards a new vision of corporate benevolence can Parmalat hope to regain a successful position in the market.
Posted by stan at 04:48 PM
December 10, 2004
Jibba-Jabba
Posted by stan at 10:08 AM
December 09, 2004
No Hat, No Cattle, Yes Nephew
Aunt Sara (to-be) and the Big Unc just got back from a visit with the young Micah. He enjoys peek-a-boo, funny faces, TV's The Wiggles, crawling up stairs, chair rides, eating messily and especially sleeping.
Update: More Micah!
Posted by stan at 08:26 PM
December 07, 2004
Which Is Worse?
So which is worse, that I've taken to openly drinking bourbon in the office or that I have enough time on my hands to take pictures of myself doing it and post them here?
Posted by stan at 10:05 PM
Pepper
Photofriday: Reflections
Posted by stan at 10:04 PM
December 04, 2004
Funny Looks
What some funny looks? Hop on the T at about 7AM on a Saturday morning wearing a suit and tie. You'll get some good double-takes and even a couple of looks from people that actually seem angry that you're all dudded up at that hour.
Posted by stan at 12:56 PM
December 03, 2004
Original Formula
Posted by stan at 07:12 PM
December 01, 2004
Bad Moon Rising
Posted by stan at 06:34 PM
November 24, 2004
Blur
Posted by stan at 09:35 AM
November 23, 2004
Grad School Dinner
Posted by stan at 09:33 AM
November 21, 2004
She Doesn't Have a Blackbelt...
...and she's not keepin' it real.
Posted by stan at 07:21 PM
November 19, 2004
Turkey
Posted by stan at 07:09 PM
Christmas Present for Stan?
I'd make room in the living room for this.
Posted by stan at 02:52 PM
Quote of the Day
"We cannot come out and say that (former U.S.) President John F. Kennedy was a shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team and so Warner cannot come out and say Alexander was gay"
---Yannis Varnakos, upset about Alexander's portrayal in the upcoming Oliver Stone movie, missing the obvious point that Kennedy would have played for the Celtics
Posted by stan at 02:19 PM
November 17, 2004
FedEx
Hmmm...this seems to have been going around for a long time, but can you spot the arrow in the FedEx logo below? I couldn't, but once I had it pointed out that's all I see.
Posted by stan at 11:22 AM
Cathy Young
One of the decreasing number of reasonable columnists left out there.
Posted by stan at 11:02 AM
November 16, 2004
PETA
If PETA really respected the rights of animals, they'd be a little more selective in choosing sponsors.
Posted by stan at 10:35 PM
November 15, 2004
Blurry New MBTA Policy?
Posted by stan at 10:45 PM
November 13, 2004
Oslo With Sara's Old Lomo
Random shots from my trip to Oslo last March.
Posted by stan at 07:15 PM
First Photo With New Camera
Posted by stan at 05:40 PM
November 12, 2004
Reprieve
Just got a call from the mechanic, it seems the old girl is going to live to see another day after all. How about that?
Posted by stan at 04:06 PM
Illness in the Family
It is with great reluctance that I announce that my beloved '89 Saab has reached a critical stage and is currently undergoing an exploratory procedure by trained professionals, the outlook is bleak.
The old girl has been in my life since the fall of 1998 and the memories are many. I remember that crisp, sunny day like it was yesterday, driving down Rt. 20 with the sun roof down and the radio on (and subsequently leaving the interior light on and running down the battery on the very first day). RJ and I inexplicably took her on a road trip to DC after a night of crying in our beer, pulling over somewhere in Delaware to call in sick to work. She took me across country (and was a comfy bed on many nights of that trip) and back after I quit my job and did a bit of a freak out in 2000. She broke down in the rotary in front of the Sagamore Bridge to the Cape a summer later, which I (or the 7 miles of backed up traffic) didn't look kindly upon at the time. The old girl took the new girl and I on many a trips during the dating years, a few to Provincetown, a couple to Burlington and other Vermont points, Portland, Long Island to meet my family, Melrose to meet her's, uh, Hartord - Insurance Capital of The World. The old girl was there when I proposed, she was struggling and showing her age, but she gutted her way all the way to Lake Champlain with the ring and champagne in the trunk. What a trooper.
I was, still am, hoping that she holds together until we finally have a place with a garage and enough space that I can fix her up like she deserves. But I can't really justify another big repair bill, especially since I'll have to put her in storage while we're in Houston. I fear our time together is fleeting as I sit here in my cold, austere office, waiting for my cell to ring with the diagnosis.
Say a prayer.
Posted by stan at 11:18 AM
Celebration!
And now, your 2004 World Series Champions, the Boston Red....oh wait, that's not a duck boat.
Photo by Oleg Popov/Reuters
Posted by stan at 10:24 AM
November 10, 2004
Ugh...
...I feel terrible. What a waste to use a sick day when I am actually sick.
Posted by stan at 07:55 AM
November 08, 2004
Hmmmm....
...it seems I lost a couple of posts and all my comments during those technical difficulties. If you'd just go ahead and imagine that they were all really clever or funny or well thought out, I'd appreciate it.
Sara and I are planning a preparatory trip to The Village Smokehouse on Wednesday. My mouth is already watering for an order of the texas sausage. The best barbecue in...Brookline.
Posted by stan at 01:29 PM
November 06, 2004
Technical Difficulties...
...I'm having them. This is what you get when you out source IT to the other side of the apartment...
Posted by stan at 06:58 PM
October 23, 2004
Distractions
How many hours will I spend on this site next week at work?
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Posted by stan at 11:23 AM
October 10, 2004
Irony?
Is it ironic that I get a day off from my Social Issues in Management course because of Columbus Day?
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Posted by stan at 11:23 AM
October 06, 2004
Question
If a man wanted to post his baseball playoff predictions on his blog and he wanted to do this in two columns, how would he go about doing this?
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Posted by stan at 11:23 AM
October 04, 2004
Take That NRA!
From the people will write letters to the editor about anything department.
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Posted by stan at 11:23 AM
October 02, 2004
Quote Of The Day
"These are the rules of a polite society."
--Stan to Little Drummer Girl, requesting she put away her sticks
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Posted by stan at 11:23 AM
September 30, 2004
Introduction
I'll get to this.
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Posted by stan at 11:23 AM